The Treehouse project is proud to announce the launching of Boy Scouts of America Survivors Action Group.

New advocacy project to provide resources for healing from abuse, provide a community space for survivors, and organize for action. Impact Campaign includes Change.org Petition calling on Congress to hold oversight hearings.

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February 6, 2023 – The 2023 DuPont Columbia Award*-winning documentary film Leave No Trace (Hulu) tells the compelling and tragic story about the massive sexual abuse scandal within the Boy Scouts of America and the resulting largest abuse settlement in US history at $2.46b for over 84,000 plaintiffs; the film’s impact campaign announced today the launch of the non-profit project, Boy Scouts of America Survivors Action Group. (*The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award honors excellence in broadcast and digital journalism in the public service and is considered one of the most prestigious awards in journalism.)

This new project, through the website BSAsurvivor.org, aims to provide support for BSA survivors and others looking for help with healing from sexual assault, and includes support resources for survivors, family members, and allies, creation of a virtual community space for survivors, and tools for organizing for action.

The website and campaign includes a Change.org Petition calling on Congress to hold oversight hearings on the BSA sexual abuse debacle and the failures of the BSA to protect young scouts. Congress granted a rare charter to the BSA in 1916 and has oversight responsibilities, and has thus far been silent on this massive scandal involving a foundational American institution.

The impact campaign development has centered the voices of the survivors in the film as collaborators with the impact producer, and has been created with the intention to 1) help sexual assault survivors with healing by providing resources and building community, and 2) work to protect future generations from abuse by closing the legal and systemic gaps, educate parents and caregivers, and advocate for policy change. The project has partnered with Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting children and confronting abuse, and RAINN, the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization.

Stuart Lord, a BSA survivor featured in the film and a leader in the project said, “Through the impact campaign we felt obligated to provide opportunities for other former Scouts to break their silence about their own sexual abuse, which was was the inspiration to create the BSA Survivors Action Group with the goal to help men and boys on the road to transforming trauma into healing. We are agents of change and wounded healers. We also continue to be supporters of scouting and the Boy Scouts of America. Our aim is to put into action those important qualities that we learned from scouting: leadership, commitment to helping others, and taking responsibility. We are working to fix what is broken in the organization that we hold so dear.”